Pond Station

Pond Station is a modular platform for monitoring the hidden activity of a freshwater pond. It has been transmitting since May 2015 when it was commissioned as a long-term sculpture at Wave Farm in Acra, NY.

Pond Station floats on the water’s surface, broadcasting underwater sounds through a live radio link. It operates from dawn to evening every day, using solar-charged internal batteries. Pond Station’s receiver is located in the Wave Farm radio studio where resident artists and broadcasters on WGXC FM can experience the pond’s natural sounds or remix and interpret them. International audiences are invited to do the same via the live web stream below.

Pond Station made its first broadcast on May 2, 2015 during REVEIL, a 24hr live broadcast of the sounds of daybreak from all over the world organized by Maria Papadomanolaki and Grant Smith.

At sunrise, Pond Station’s hydrophones (underwater microphones) reveal a photosynthetic chorus of bubbling as plants begin to produce oxygen. Insect, fish and frog vocalizations continue all day, combined with the traces of sounds in the air that excite the water too (like passing cars, singing insects or humans). Rain on the pond surface creates a dense cloud of high-frequency detail, like the coals in a cooling campfire. In the winter, life in the pond slows down to near silence as the water ices over, but the ice may crackle and hiss during its daily expansion and contraction.

Design

Pond Station’s physical form is inspired by the utilitarian beauty of remote research stations and space probes. Its exterior is designed to withstand high winds and rain while keeping its electronics dry and its antenna focused on the receiver. The project began in 2013 as Pond FM (with N.B.Aldrich), an installation that transmitted the underwater sounds of the pond over short-range FM radio. Pond Station is based on the same custom hydrophones but the rest of the system has been replaced with a more rugged and upgradable platform. The audio is transmitted over a low-power digital radio link using custom-built antennas to cover the 350ft distance between the pond and the receiver. An Arduino microcontroller manages the transmission schedule and power distribution to keep the station on the air regardless of weather. A telemetry radio transmits updates about the internal electronics and local environmental data, which are archived for future analysis. (The environmental data also helps contextualize the sounds since sunlight is the primary driver of the pond’s ecosystem.) The web stream is powered by a Raspberry Pi and the Locus Sonus streaming server and sound map.

In 2016 Pond Station was upgraded to include light-based sensors which reveal some of the insect “night life” of the pond and provide opportunities for light-based interaction with performers.

My essay about Pond Station was included in a 2016 Sounds Remote booklet, published by Uniformbooks:

Changes

One hydrophone failed so we dropped the stream to mono. Fixed and returned to stereo.

April 2017

Replaced aging resin-covered solar panels with long-lived glass ones.

Added more flotation since new solar panels are heavier.

Added internal temperature monitoring. When temp falls below 40F it’s unsafe to charge the battery, so the behavior changes to “winter mode” to conserve battery power: Transmitter only turns on when solar is sufficient to power it without help from battery. Lights are disabled at night.

Receiver box now has color display and indicates temperature conditions.

Added a muting circuit to the receiver so there is no annoying static on web stream when transmitter is turned off for the night. It is now replaced by a looping interval signal.

Sadly, broke web telemetry for now (but web stream still works great).

February 2017

Hydrophone sensitivity took a nosedive. Things improved considerably after removing a few pounds of underwater vegetation and muck that had completely covered the sensors!